Too young for BLW?

[millysimmons]

My DS is 5months+1wk & this morning after much internal debate I gave him some mashed bananna, he grabbed the spoon & shoved it straight in. I had really really wanted to wait till he was 6months & exc BF but he's been really groutchy the last wk or so & keeps staring at me when I eat & if hes close enough makes a grab for fork or food!I'm also preggers & wondered if he's not so keen on flavour of Bmilk at mo?
So this am gave him bananna but as he wants to feed himself can i go ahead with BLW???

with blw the idea is to wait to wean until your baby can pick up food himself and chew it and swallow it. before 26 weeks, yes your baby may well put food in his mouth, but he may not go so far as to chew it up and swallow it. i imagine anything you put to his mouth he would open up for. so the real thing is to just slice a banana/peach/ etc and put it on his highchair tray and see if he goes for it.

Hi, I am a relative new comer to MN and am going through something similar with my own ds who is four and a half months. I live in Singapore but attend a clinic every couple of weeks led by British Midwives who advise no solids before six months, however whilst at the Peadiatrician last week (he is Chinese) he seemed to think that anytime between four and six months was fine! So what to do, but if my boy was five months plus I would go ahead, especially as he appears to be showing all the signs of looking for food. Plus I bf whilst pregnant and not sure that the flavour alters at all. I think you should trust your own insticts by the way I fed both my others at about twenty weeks and no ill effects.....yet!

Wheres Aitch when you need her?

If you read this that might help? There is also a whole wealth of information on that site.

It is also important that your LO is sitting unaided I think.

nah, you don't need me at all, abominable, dizzy has said everything i would say. although i am not a huge believer in 'the signs' i should say... what signs is he actually showing? i'd suggest that the staring, grouchiness and sticking things in the mouth is all normal for a 5 month old. by all means give it a try but don't force the issue.

Thanks. Will let you know how I get on

I agree - Dizzy said it well (I was called away to a childcare related incident so took FOREVER to do my post )

but don't be in too much of a hurry, milly, really, you've got a lifetime of feeding this child solid food ahead of you... another three weeks is nothing in the scheme of things.

I am BLW, started at 7 months as LO went off Puree, although she does now take puree again sometimes. I agree with the other posts, go with the pace and desires of your baby. We started weaning at 5.5months, but not BLW, and gave her a spoon to hold, and the food spoon when she finished. If your LO can hold the food its probably fine, but just take care what you give her to start with. Most importantly, can she sit up unaided? If she cannot support herself, finger food not a good idea re: risk of choking.

I gave my LO chunks of banana, cooked chipped sweet potato and butternut squash, cooked chunks of apple and pear (1 min in microwave) as if/when the food breaks after being sucked on, it turns to mush therefore reducing the risk of choking.

Good luck, its soo much fun, all the weaning process, except eggy poo.

Very interesting reading especially the comment about not being in a hurry to start he has the rest of his life to chew. Am now completely not in a hurry and happy that he is getting all he needs from me.

that's good, singapore. welcome to MN, by the way... you'll be addicted soon enough. (another reason to leave weaning til later and to do BLW - more MN time!)

He didnt have anythng else yesteerday & DH suggested that we see how we get on today before offering him anything so we havent really started much!